Aaron Rodgers’ three interceptions against the Lions were all on him. What has happened to the best pure thrower of his generation?
Because Aaron Rodgers is one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history — and the best pure thrower of the football in his prime that I’ve ever seen — it’s all to easy to blame Rodgers’ receivers, offensive line, running backs, play-callers, coordinators, head coach, and even his defense for the Green Bay Packers’ 3-6 start to the 2022 season. The Packers are probably out of the playoff race barring a series of miracle comebacks down the stretch, and head coach Matt LaFleur already has as many losses as he did in the entire 2019 and 2020 regular seasons combined.
After Green Bay’s 15-9 Sunday loss to the Detroit Lions, Rodgers was subject to a seasonal comparison no quarterback would enjoy.
Yes, Rodgers’ receiver corps has been league-average when healthy, and far below that when dinged-up as they are now. Yes, the offensive line has been a mess. Yes, LaFleur and his staff need to do more to open things up for Rodgers — let’s please start with the run game. But in watching Rodgers’ three interceptions against the Lions, and an offense that scored just nine points against the NFL’s worst defense, it was hard to avoid pointing at least one finger at the franchise quarterback.
Before this game, Rodgers had thrown just eight interceptions inside the opposing 10-yard line. In his entire career. Against the Lions, he threw two — in the first half.
Let’s start with the first, which came with 4:25 left in the first quarter. This was the one where Rodgers’ throw bounced off the helmet of Lions linebacker Derick Barnes. And while that certainly impacted the play, this was more than just bad luck on Rodgers’ part. He was trying to hit receiver Allen Lazard on a crosser from the left slot, and the end zone copy tells you that had the ball gone where Rodgers wanted it to go, it was probably going to be behind Lazard in the timing of the route. Rodgers had a clear lane to his left, and Lazard coming open against cornerback Will Harris, but it’s that extra millisecond that causes trouble even without the doink.
The second red zone pick was the first play of the second quarter, and I can only call this an example of Rodgers bleeping around and finding out. The plan here, apparently, was to hit left tackle David Bakhtiari on a little wide-open throwback, and shock the Lions with the genius of it all. I’m the president of the THICC-SIX fan club, but this had “Born This Play” written all over it.
Rodgers was pressured immediately by defensive tackle Isaiah Buggs, who sliced through the right side of Green Bay’s offensive line as if it was so much Swiss cheese. That put him on a track to make a cross-body, off-platform throw to a guy who has caught no passes in his NFL career. Detroit edge-rusher Aidan Hutchinson made a brilliant adjustment on the throw for the pick, but I’d love to know in the moment why Rodgers didn’t re-set his expectations under pressure, roll right, and hit the receiver open on the end zone crossers. That was Sammy Watkins from right to left. We do not expect Aaron Rodgers to fixate on his first option even after everything tells him that it’s not going to work.
Onto the third pick, which came with 9:23 left in the third quarter from the Detroit 22-yard line. So, we’re out of the red zone issues, but this was bad. The Packers were in empty against the Lions’ Cover-4 with Barnes dropping into coverage, and Rodgers inexplicably tried to hit tight end Robert Tonyan from the inside slot, though Barnes carried Tonyan to safety Kerby Joseph, and that’s where the coverage was clumped.
If Rodgers had wished to avail himself of intermediate one-on-ones to either side, he had them — Jeff Okudah on Watkins to his left, and Harris on Lazard to his right. Again, it seemed that Rodgers was in “first-read-or-bust” mode, and that’s what we expect from rookie quarterbacks who are on the verge of getting benched.
“Frustration and [misery] are two different emotions,” Rodgers said after the game, regarding how things are going, and if he regretted his decision to return to football for the 2020 season. “So, when I decided to come back, it was all-in, and I don’t make decisions and then hindsight, 20/20 have regrets about big decisions like that.
“So I was all-in, and this is a lot of life lessons for sure this year, but luckily it’s not over. There’s still a lot of games left. We’ll be counted out, probably, by many, and we’ll see how we respond.”
If it’s not over, it’s certainly close. And while we don’t know where Rodgers is in his head with all this, what shows on the field perfectly sits between frustration and misery.
